According to Wojnarowski, the deal would be for approximately $500 million and seek to relocate the franchise to Key Arena for the 2013-14 season. The team would then play at Key Arena for two seasons and then transition into a new Seattle Arena.

"No agreement signed, but one source describes deal as '1st and goal at 1.' Maloofs' history of changing course late still makes many uneasy," Wojnarowski reports.

The Sacramento Bee cited an unidentified source close to the Kings, who denied that the team had been sold to the Seattle group.

"That rumor is inaccurate," the source, who declined to be identified, told the newspaper.

An NBA representative also declined comment this morning, the Bee reported.

"All indications that I have seen and read and heard is they are exploring opportunities to sell the team, and that is public and that is the first I have ever heard," Sacramento mayor and former NBA guard Kevin Johnson said. "We need to put ourselves in a position to find an ownership group and buyers to keep the team here in Sacramento."

If the Kings are, in fact, headed to Seattle, it would seem they will once again become the SuperSonics.

According to the Seattle Times, first buzz of a rumor that the Kings would relocate to Seattle came via social media Tuesday night. The source of the rumor was the daughter of longtime NBA agent David Falk.

As of mid-morning Wednesday, the Times was reporting that an unidentified source close to the situation said the Kings had not been sold.

Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, speaking at an event to announce his run for re-election, only had this to say: "I know as much as you do about the Sonics ... If it's true, ain't it cool?"

It was widely reported that Kings had been discussing since August a move to Virginia Beach, where the team would've been an anchor tenant of a proposed arena.

When the Virginia Beach mayor's Tuesday deadline for a having a deal between the Maloofs and arena developer Comcast-Spectacor passed and the city withdrew its support, the Kings were expected to explore other options.

Given how quickly the reported deal developed with Hansen and Ballmer's Seattle group, the Maloofs might have already been exploring those options.

The Kings have flirted with Las Vegas and in 2011 threatened to move to Anaheim. Johnson convinced the NBA to give the city one last chance to help finance an arena. At one point, Johnson seemed so certain the team was gone he called the process a "slow death" and compared the city's efforts to keep the Kings a "Hail Mary."

Johnson made a desperate pitch to the NBA Board of Governors in April 2011, promising league owners the city would find a way to help finance a new arena to replace the team's current outdated suburban facility. That pitch bought the Kings time, before the brokered deal between the city and the Maloofs fell apart last year.

Johnson said the Maloof family still must repay a $77 million loan to the city and other lenders.

The franchise's status in Sacramento became uncertain again last spring after the Maloofs abandoned a tentative deal for a new downtown arena to replace their aging current venue, Sleep Train Arena.

The NBA deadline for requesting the right to relocate in time for the 2013-14 season is March 1.

Hansen, a hedge-fund manager who has led the effort to build a new arena in Seattle and return the NBA to the city that lost the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City, could not be reached by the Times for comment.

However, Hansen has said he would be willing to buy a team and have it play in KeyArena for a season or two while a proposed arena in the Seattle is built.

Plans to build a $490 million arena were approved last October by the City Council and the King County Council.